In the past, it was often more economical to design and build a new offshore platform than to attempt to salvage and re-use one already in place. This is because most of the existing platforms with skirt piles were secured in place by bonding the skirt pile to the jacket leg using grout, and no economical means of breaking this grout bond has been found. Consequently, if a platform were to be re-used, the jacket, in its entirety, would have to be salvaged, towed to a fabrication yard, and supported in dry dock so as to replace the jacket legs. Alternatively, if jacket leg replacement was to be avoided, the platform could be re-secured in place at the new location by using smaller diameter piles (i.e., sized to fit within the original piles previously grouted to the jacket leg) with deeper penetration. This option, however, is only feasible where these smaller diameter piles are able to supply the strength required to adequately secure the platform in the new location. Oftentimes, this is not possible because the original piles, in an effort to save money and weight, were already of minimum size and thus the use of even smaller piles would not be feasible.
It is thus an object of this invention to provide a design for attaching skirt piles to a jacket leg such that the platform may be re-used if needed without resorting to the replacement of the jacket leg or the use of smaller diameter piles. Another object of this invention is to provide a skirt pile-to-jacket leg connection that can be broken such that the platform may be conveniently salvaged. Another object of this invention is to provide a skirt pile-to-jacket leg connection that is pre-fabricated along with the platform itself such that when re-use of the platform is desired, the connecting assembly for securing each jacket leg to the new set of skirt piles is already in place. These and other advantages of this invention will become obvious upon further investigation.